This is helpful if you've a network involving a Windows host that you want to be able to resolve the hostname of your Linux hosts.
For Debian based distros, Ubuntu etc:
apt-get install libnss-winbind winbind samba
Then to enable make an edit to /etc/nsswitch.conf to change the hosts section from
hosts: files dns
To
hosts: files dns wins
You may need 'samba' to get the nmbd to replay to NetBIOS requests
